[engine] Replace dismissal of recalls with hiding recalls

Brainstorm ideas of possible additions to the game. Read this before posting!

Moderator: Forum Moderators

Forum rules
Before posting a new idea, you must read the following:
Post Reply
rjaguar3
Posts: 14
Joined: October 15th, 2011, 10:40 pm

[engine] Replace dismissal of recalls with hiding recalls

Post by rjaguar3 »

The problem

The current tool for recall list management is dismissal: permanent removal of the veteran unit from the game.
There are several problems with this:
  • Because dismissal is permanent, smart players will not dismiss any unit that has any conceivable purpose for being on the recall list. This undermines its usefulness as an interface improvement for the recall list
  • Dismissal can be exploited in
    Spoiler:
    undermining the intent of that event.
  • There is no WML event that fires on dismissal. This means that mechanics that depend on the player having a certain unit on the recall list (including the
    Spoiler:
    and the fix to bug #23668) will have unfixable bugs if a (pathological) player dismisses the last applicable unit. It also prevents WML authors from writing workarounds to exploits such as the one mentioned in the previous point.
The proposal
Remove dismissal of units. In its place, the player should be given the option to hide or show recalls (using a button that will take the place of the dismiss button). The recall dialog should add a checkbox labeled "Show hidden recalls". When the checkbox is unchecked, hidden recalls are not displayed in the recall list. An appropriate WML attribute or event would be included in the save files.

Effect
The change will make hiding recalls a purely interface action, closing exploits and opportunities for bugs. Also, because hiding a recall is not permanent, players will be more willing to use the feature. The only downside I see is that save files might be clogged with useless hidden units, but I think it's a small price to pay.
User avatar
iceiceice
Posts: 1056
Joined: August 23rd, 2013, 2:10 am

Re: [engine] Replace dismissal of recalls with hiding recall

Post by iceiceice »

This is a good idea, IMO
User avatar
zookeeper
WML Wizard
Posts: 9742
Joined: September 11th, 2004, 10:40 pm
Location: Finland

Re: [engine] Replace dismissal of recalls with hiding recall

Post by zookeeper »

I don't think I really have any objections to that. There's some conceivable corner cases where the player might be intended to dismiss units as some kind of a mechanic, but it seems unlikely. In any case, making the hiddenness into a unit attribute allows for the same functionality.

The only small worry I'd have is that if somewhere the player gets a huge pile of useless units on their recall list (enough to noticeably impact performance and/or savefile size) for whatever reason, there'd be no way to clear them. I don't know if that can actually happen anywhere.
User avatar
iceiceice
Posts: 1056
Joined: August 23rd, 2013, 2:10 am

Re: [engine] Replace dismissal of recalls with hiding recall

Post by iceiceice »

zookeeper wrote:I don't think I really have any objections to that. There's some conceivable corner cases where the player might be intended to dismiss units as some kind of a mechanic, but it seems unlikely. In any case, making the hiddenness into a unit attribute allows for the same functionality.

The only small worry I'd have is that if somewhere the player gets a huge pile of useless units on their recall list (enough to noticeably impact performance and/or savefile size) for whatever reason, there'd be no way to clear them. I don't know if that can actually happen anywhere.
I think that any campaign that relies on the user manually deleting thousands of units with a little button, needs to be dramatically redesigned anyways.
User avatar
Paulomat4
Moderator Emeritus
Posts: 730
Joined: October 16th, 2012, 3:32 pm
Location: Wesmere library, probably summoning Zhangor

Re: [engine] Replace dismissal of recalls with hiding recall

Post by Paulomat4 »

I don't think I really have any objections to that. There's some conceivable corner cases where the player might be intended to dismiss units as some kind of a mechanic, but it seems unlikely. In any case, making the hiddenness into a unit attribute allows for the same functionality.

The only small worry I'd have is that if somewhere the player gets a huge pile of useless units on their recall list (enough to noticeably impact performance and/or savefile size) for whatever reason, there'd be no way to clear them. I don't know if that can actually happen anywhere.


I think that any campaign that relies on the user manually deleting thousands of units with a little button, needs to be dramatically redesigned anyways.
I think LOTI has this problem because you get hundreds of walking corpses, but they are deleted automatically after the first 20 or so. As long as it is still possible to delete units from the recall list as add-on creotor this idea seems very good :)
Creator of Dawn of Thunder and Global Unitmarkers

"I thought Naga's used semi-automatic crossbows with incendiary thermite arrows . . . my beliefs that this race is awesome are now shattered." - Evil Earl
Whiskeyjack
Posts: 476
Joined: February 7th, 2015, 1:27 am
Location: Germany

Re: [engine] Replace dismissal of recalls with hiding recall

Post by Whiskeyjack »

Immediately thought of LotI as well. But I think an option for the campaign creator to fiddle with the recall list is nessecary anyway.
Under blood-red skies, an old man sits
In the ruins of Carthage - contemplating prophecy.
User avatar
SolaEvoli
Posts: 11
Joined: September 28th, 2015, 8:00 am

Re: [engine] Replace dismissal of recalls with hiding recall

Post by SolaEvoli »

The recall list clutters with many L1 units with just 4 or less points of experience too.
Sometimes you don't want them, especially if they are cheaper to recruit than to recall and they have traits you don't want (no quick when you play on 3MP-terrains in cave-missions with elves, etc).

Sometimes I want a favourite-icon for units. Some campaign adds a GEARED-trait to make them more noticeable in the recruit list when it has items (items which are sadly hard to manage (a lot of lag too) btw)
Post Reply